An Zhe replied, “I don’t know.”

Poet looked at Boss Shaw. “This old gentleman must know.”

Boss Shaw raised his head proudly. “I know.”

Poet wondered, “Your age?”

Boss Shaw didn’t answer and just said, “When I was young, everyone supported this bill.”

Poet sat down at the corner of the bed with An Zhe. His gray prison uniform was worn in some places and his long black hair was simply tied up behind him. His face was very calm but when he spoke, there was a type of frustration in his tone. Perhaps this was the tone commonly used in Poet’s profession. “The Judges’ Act has lasted nearly 70 years. I think the Northern Base is very grateful for it but I don’t know much about it. There are too few old people in the base.”

Boss Shaw’s interest seemed to finally shift away from the issue of where An Zhe slept and he played with the small doll parts he took out of his pocket. “I also listened to people talk about it when I was a child.”

Poet stated, “You speak.”

“Everyone was scared after the Southeast Base was finished. At that time, the degree of heterogenous mutation wasn’t as great as it is now. If people returned from outside the base, they just had to go through a whole body examination and it would be fine as long as there were no wounds and other abnormal places. There were soldiers in every part of the base and once a mutation was found, kill it immediately.” Boss Shaw explained “The ultrasonic dispersers hadn’t been invented yet and flying insects would cause disorder at the base. The big ones with obvious mutations were killed by soldiers. The small ones couldn’t be caught and the base was full of insect catching traps. Minors weren’t allowed to leave the base so they formed insect killing teams and killed insects everywhere.”

Poet said, “The era of military chaos.”

“Almost.” Boss Shaw continued. “I was an insect catcher when I was a kid. More than 10 years later, there was an ultrasonic dispersal instrument and not a single insect could fly into the entire base.”

“By then, the Judge’s Act was in place.”

“Yes,” Boss Shaw replied. “However, the bill wasn’t introduced because of the insects. It was because of a surveillance video. A water tower supervisor routinely inspected the surveillance and saw something happen in the corner. The place was too dark and it was unclear, so no one found it at the time. The moment the video was watched, the monitor was frightened. He never could’ve imagined that scene.”

An Zhe was interested in Boss Shaw’s story and he saw Poet listening with all his attention.